The ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment was originally located in the emergency evacuation area. Photo: Supplied.
Pro-Palestinian rallies at the Australian National University (ANU) continue unabated despite the protesters being served with a notice to move on by security.
A rally from 10:30 this morning (28 May) attracted hundreds of people and placards, reiterating their freedom to protest against the war in Gaza after efforts by the university to move the encampment from an emergency evacuation area.
The ‘ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ sprang up on an open grassy space along University Avenue about a month ago, with daily rallies ever since.
On Wednesday, 15 May, the ANU said the tents and marquees spread across the primary emergency evacuation site for the Kambri area of the campus posed an “unacceptable safety risk”.
Kambri includes student residences for 400 students, major teaching and study areas, a medical centre, a gym and swimming pool, a cultural centre accommodating 1000 visitors, and a variety of businesses.
A fire alarm and subsequent evacuation of the area in early May revealed the alternative assembly area “failed”, and seven of the students were asked to move on by that Friday.
ANU staff also met with several of the students to discuss how they could continue to protest in a way that ensures the “health, safety and well-being” of everyone on campus but clarified that if students defied the ultimatum to relocate, they would face “disciplinary action” by police.
The rallies are said to be attracting between 250 and 300 students. Photo: Supplied.
On Monday morning, at 8 am, protesters said they were woken by security guards serving them a notice to move on by 12 pm, Tuesday.
“We respect the right of all members of our community to protest, provided it is safe, respectful and lawful,” ANU Chief Operating Officer Christopher Price said in a statement.
“To facilitate ongoing protest, if that is what members of our community wish to undertake, ANU has offered alternative sites for that purpose. This includes the University Avenue lawns near North Road and the lawns outside the Chancelry.”
During the day, more than 200 protesters – including ACT Greens politicians – decried the notice, with many forming a human barrier around the edge of the encampment while others chanted with megaphones.
During a rally yesterday, protesters formed a human chain to protest the ANU’s order to move on. Photo: Supplied.
But in a statement today, the organisers say they “overwhelmingly made the decision to relocate to the end of University Avenue”.
One student, Al, told Region the original site has been “completely cleared out”.
“We still got good numbers. We saw, if anything, an increase in numbers overnight due to the escalatory measures from the university,” she said.
This morning’s rally was to “demonstrate that students of the ANU will continue to exercise our right to peacefully protest”.
“We will continue to serve as a reminder to the ANU, for as long as it takes, that they have a legal obligation not to be complicit in an unfolding genocide,” a statement from the organisers reads.
The encampment is calling for the university to “disclose and divest” its ties to the Israeli military. FOI documents requested by the protesters reveal the ANU has contracts with Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Saab worth more than $1 million.
Al says these, and a number of other companies working with the ANU, are “complicit in and aiding the genocide in Gaza”.
ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said it was “shameful” the university’s leadership is moving the students on “rather than genuinely addressing their demands”.
“I think the important point here is that the students do have a right to protest … and that we get a dialogue going between the students and the uni,” he told ABC radio this morning.
The encampment has moved to a grassy patch further down University Avenue. Photo: Supplied.
The Australian Jewish Association (AJA), with student members at the ANU, says the university should have acted earlier to remove the protesters.
“ANU has brought this on themselves,” CEO Robert Gregory told Region.
“Even now, the reason they’re providing is to do with safety when it should be to do with the students’ safety, and how these encampments are … intimidating to students.”
AJA has received allegations from Jewish students of bullying by some of the protesters, including verbal abuse and even a Nazi salute, which the university is investigating. One student alleges he had to find new accommodation.
“We believe at least one of the strong motivators [of protestors] is hatred of Jews,” Mr Gregory said.
“We haven’t seen these sort of encampments for any other international war, and we don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
In a plan released today, Federal opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said if elected next year, the Coalition would use section 116 of the Migration Act to cancel the visas of student protesters “found to be involved in spreading anti-semitism or supporting terrorism”.
The encampment maintains it is “committed against any forms of bigotry. including Islamophobia, anti-semitism and all forms of racism”.
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